TY - JOUR
T1 - Optimal contact process on complex networks
AU - Yang, Rui
AU - Zhou, Tao
AU - Xie, Yan Bo
AU - Lai, Ying-Cheng
AU - Wang, Bing Hong
PY - 2008/12/1
Y1 - 2008/12/1
N2 - Contact processes on complex networks are a recent subject of study in nonequilibrium statistical physics and they are also important to applied fields such as epidemiology and computer and communication networks. A basic issue concerns finding an optimal strategy for spreading. We provide a universal strategy that, when a basic quantity in the contact process dynamics, the contact probability determined by a generic function of its degree W (k), is chosen to be inversely proportional to the node degree, i.e., W (k) ∼ k-1, spreading can be maximized. Computation results on both model and real-world networks verify our theoretical prediction. Our result suggests the determining role played by small-degree nodes in optimizing spreading, in contrast to the intuition that hub nodes are important for spreading dynamics on complex networks.
AB - Contact processes on complex networks are a recent subject of study in nonequilibrium statistical physics and they are also important to applied fields such as epidemiology and computer and communication networks. A basic issue concerns finding an optimal strategy for spreading. We provide a universal strategy that, when a basic quantity in the contact process dynamics, the contact probability determined by a generic function of its degree W (k), is chosen to be inversely proportional to the node degree, i.e., W (k) ∼ k-1, spreading can be maximized. Computation results on both model and real-world networks verify our theoretical prediction. Our result suggests the determining role played by small-degree nodes in optimizing spreading, in contrast to the intuition that hub nodes are important for spreading dynamics on complex networks.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevE.78.066109
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevE.78.066109
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:58149277318
SN - 1539-3755
VL - 78
JO - Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
JF - Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
IS - 6
M1 - 066109
ER -